Mrs Nicole Coulter? and Australia through US eyes

[annemehr <annemehr@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> 
wrote:

<snip>
 
> Back to accents, one thing I noticed when travelling the States last 
year for the first time was that in the US Australia has almost no 
presence (save perhaps Paul Hogan and that crocodile guy).  Quite 
different from the UK, where people readily recognise an Australian 
accent and have definite (albeit sometimes odd) ideas about what the 
place is like.  My impression was that in the States Australia has, if 
anything at all, a vaguely... *rural* sort of an image.  Californian 
beaches crossed with small midwest country towns and peppered with 
kangaroos.
> 
<snip>
> 
> So, while I'm taking one of my favorite hobby horses (Anglophone 
Contrasts, out of Curiosity by Midnight Message) out for a canter, 
what image *do* people in the USA have of Australia, if any?  Would 
you recognise an Australian accent?
> 
> Tabouli.

Annemehr: <waves at her list-elf, sorry to have missed her visit ;)>

Well, for the most part, I think we just think of Australia as "cool". 
 A little like us as far as the "rugged self-reliance" goes (taken as 
an archetypal image, not as a believed reality).  You can see it in 
the popularity of Hogan and Steve Irwin when they come along.

True, there is not much of a strong Australian presence here besides 
entertainers.  I think that is because, while very many of us would 
love to visit Australia, it's far enough away and expensive enough to 
get there that it unfortunately doesn't happen much.  Also, 
there've been *very* few Australians who have ever emigrated to 
the US, and immigration is what has brought us the presence of so many 
cultures here that we're now so familiar with.  There's a basic good 
image of Australia, but not much interaction, unfortunately.  I for 
one, though, can certainly tell the difference between Australian and 
British accents.

Going off on a tangent, I wish with all the cable channels we have, we 
would get a lot more TV from other countries.  We get some of the BBC 
comedies on PBS, certainly, but it just seems to be that one little 
niche only.  I'd love to get the BBC news (straight from London, not 
an "international" version), and more varied shows from Britain, 
Australia, New Zealand and Canada.  Maybe it's available on hugely 
expensive options with 800 channels or something, but I'm only paying 
for basic cable.  Don't you all think there'd be a decent viewership 
for this kind of thing?  I'd tune in!

Annemehr
fondly remembering living in England for a year in '71/'72 when she 
was 11 -- a first-year in grammar school!